Announced alongside the iPhone X, the AirPower was supposed to solve a problem that still exists.
AirPower Promised too Much Convenience and Ignored the Technical Challenges to Deliver it
Wireless charging has been around for a long time, but Apple made it mainstream with the announcement of iPhone 8 and iPhone X.
However, alongside those phones was an announcement that really felt like the reinvention of wireless charging – AirPower. It was a charging pad that would charge an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods together.
Yes, all three of them, at the same time, no alignment required either. And that is an extremely crucial problem that was solved, at least on stage.
However, with time, the AirPower kept on being delayed until technical challenges got the best of it and it was ultimately scrapped.
I do believe MagSafe is a great solution to the wireless charging problem. Just use magnets for the perfect alignment and best-possible efficiency. But, it does not even come close to the convenience the AirPower was promising.
It’s just one charging pad with tons of coils to charge all three devices at once. There are no special sections on it for charging the Apple Watch and AirPods.
Interestingly enough, third-party makers saw the demise of the AirPower as an opportunity and tried to make something similar and all of them failed. Some had a dedicated charging spot for the Apple Watch while some had a tiny little ‘x’ on each side highlighting where you have to put your smartphone to charge it.
Needless to say Apple took on an amazing feat of engineering without doing much homework. Because, the AirPower used too many charging coils that were creating interference and overheating issues couldn’t be solved either.
Fast forward to this day and we have 3-in-1 chargers with a Qi2 charging pad, Apple Watch charger and a dedicated spot for AirPods to charge the ecosystem wirelessly. You’ll find these accessories in all shapes and sizes and even I have quite a lot of them, too.
In fact, I’ll just say that these 3-in-1 accessories are more than enough for the average user. Nothing more, nothing less.
But, the fact that AirPower didn’t ask you where you should put your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods felt like a liberating moment everyone should have gotten a taste of.
Though rumors do mention Apple working on a similar solution to AirPower for multi-device charging, but in the world of MagSafe, I doubt it will be anything similar.
